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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28156524">A piece of the past, (see how far you've come)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightinpinkunderwear/pseuds/knightinpinkunderwear'>knightinpinkunderwear</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Case Fic, Dad Castiel, Dialogue Heavy, Domestic Castiel/Dean Winchester, Domestic Fluff, Episode: s15e07 Last Call, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Homophobic John Winchester, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Minor Character Death, Monsters, Not Canon Compliant, POV Dean Winchester, POV Third Person Limited, Past Relationship(s), Phone Calls &amp; Telephones, Toddler Jack, cas raised jack and got the brothers to agree to help, dad dean winchester, don't worry john is still dead, episode fic, i guess, jack didn't accidentally rip a portal into another dimension when he was born, jack is actually a kid, lee dies still</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:46:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,316</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28156524</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightinpinkunderwear/pseuds/knightinpinkunderwear</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean bumps into an old friend while checking up for a case as he and Cas pass through Texas with Jack.</p><p>Or how 15x07 might have gone if Jack wasn't aged up.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel &amp; Jack Kline &amp; Dean Winchester &amp; Sam Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Lee Webb &amp; Dean Winchester, past Lee Webb/Dean Winchester - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>316</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A piece of the past, (see how far you've come)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Am I going to explain how Cas is still alive and how they get away from Lucifer with no rift to a different world? Nope.<br/>All you need to know is that Jack was born a baby and they cloaked the cabin full of wardings and maybe Crowley helped them trap Lucifer in the cage again, and Michael/Adam slipped out and they never found him. </p><p>Assume that Crowley is alive and that he and Rowena helped bring Kevin and Eileen's souls from hell because they owe Sam. </p><p>Chuck is grumpy someplace because the Winchesters won't fight or hurt each other and Amara having met Jack briefly decided to intervene and keep her brother from interfering with them or hurting her baby grand-nephew in any way.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Small town sheriffs were usually a little on the kooky side, (at least in comparison to the big city folks) but nothing quite this apathetically optimistic. But Dean had a funny feeling about this, it looked like a case, and he'd be damned if he didn't at least look at the abduction site and interview the only witness himself. Especially since it seemed that the sheriff just didn't care.</p><p>Even if Dean maybe hoped it wasn't a case so he could floor it back to Dallas and catch up with Cas and Jack at the Dallas Zoo, get a ridiculously overpriced dinner of mediocre food he could buy from the freezer section of a 7-eleven. Maybe even see a bit of the zoo himself, even if the kiddo was in that weird phase where he liked reptiles and --Dean repressed a shudder-- snakes.</p><p>Anything for that kid though, Dean knew, logically, that Jack understood that he was not big enough or mature enough to take care of a snake or other reptile, despite his being possibly the most powerful entity in the universe besides Chuck and Auntie Amara (which was a title and phrase that both got weirder and more normal every time he said it).</p><p>He changed from the fake fed suit and into the normal layered shirts and flannel if the sheriff's suspicions were right he might just be able to make it back to Dallas in time for Jack's bedtime story.</p><p>He arrived at Swayze's a little past four. But 'cause it was frickin' November, the sun had already set and the cool evening had enveloped the bar. The neon sign set a nice warm ambiance in the blue of almost night, the sign itself was in one of those almost cursive fonts but in a classic sort of way that didn't look too swirly. At least eight bikes were parked out front, and a few folks were chatting on wood benches on the porch, next to a rusty old 12-spoke wagon wheel. The windows were lit up, one blue from, one yellow, one pink from the glows of their corresponding neon lights about various beers they had on tap.</p><p>Thanks to it being Texas there was a good percentage of the bar-goers wearing some form of a cowboy hat, even if most of them were straw and dyed various colors (at least none of them were hot pink or worse yet; <em>frickin' teal </em>). The lighting in the bar was nice too, blues and pinks on the stage making for a fun atmosphere where they cast the shadows in purples. The rest was typical lighting, a classic wood bar, and natural floors.</p><p>It was a nice bar. One that Dean would've been happy to spend all night in when he was younger (and no, that did not mean he was old).</p><p>"Hey, there," a woman in a black low-cut button shirt greeted, some sort of wicker basket at her hip.</p><p>"Nice place," he said, taking a glance around the bar for added effect.</p><p>"Best beer and wings in the world," she said with confidence, and if that wasn't a challenge Dean didn't know what it was. What the hell, by the time he'll have wrapped up with this Cas will have already gotten Jack fed. The times he'd drilled Dean (and Sam join in) about the importance of keeping a consistent schedule in a child's development. And <em>Dean, Jack knows when it's time for dinner, please don't confuse him. </em>Not that he could ever change that schedule up, 'cause that kid had baby blues that could rival Cas's, and being that he was two, he was intrinsically blessed with the gift of the best puppy pout in the world.</p><p>"I'll be the judge of that,"</p><p>"Sure you will handsome. But first," she said, leaning in conspiratorially, "-hand it over."</p><p>He blinked, "My gun?"</p><p>"This is Texas sweetheart, you can keep your gun," she smiled, "Cellphone." She lifted the wicker basket, it was packed full of phones.</p><p>Oh. Huh. That was one way of getting people to engage with others. Though what person who could go to a bar and sit on their phone the whole time didn't seem like a person that existed in the real world to him. Vamps, Angels, Demons, Nephilim, frickin' Jefferson Starships? Those were real, a person sitting on their frickin' phone at a bar? Nah. </p><p>"Ain't a party if everyone's on their phones," she continued. </p><p>"Ah," he started, "Can I take you up on that later? I really don't aim to stay long,"</p><p>"That's a pity,"</p><p>"Yeah well, I'm just here lookin' for someone,"</p><p>"I would say you found her, but you're not exactly playing by house rules," the brunette motioned generally to herself, a few years ago he definitely would've taken up that offer, and hated himself for it.</p><p>"Sally Anderson, you seen her?"</p><p>"Not yet, but two for Tuesday, it's only a matter of time," she said. And given what everyone seemed to say about Sally, that tracked. </p><p>"Thank you,"</p><p>"You sure I can't persuade you to give it up?" she asked again, giving a hopeful gesture to the basket.</p><p>"Funny, two-and-a-half years ago I woulda handed it over easy, but-" He pulled his phone from its pocket, turning it on to pull up one of the photos Cas sent a few hours ago, smiling to himself at the ridiculous string of emoticons in the texts attached. He turned it to show her Jack's little sunshine smiling face, the gap in his front teeth just as endearing as it was when they first came in. He was pointing at a snake, and as much as Dean hated those slithery leather death noodles, Jack's bright smile was always going to win him over.</p><p>"Aww, ain't he a cutie," the woman cooed, "I see he takes after his father," she complimented. </p><p>"Yeah, he does," Dean smiled, thinking about the way Jack squinted his eyes when he smiled, mimicking the fond crinkly thing that Cas's eyes did. Only later realizing that the woman must mean<em> him,</em> not Cas because she didn't know about Cas.</p><p>"Alright, you can keep it, just don't let me catch you glued to the screen." she teased, pointing a finger at him in accusation. He pocketed the phone.</p><p>"You have my word," he swore, raising both hands in mock-surrender. With one last smile, she walked past him, playfully hip-checking him as she went. He chuckled and turned to watch her leave, scanning the area by the stage for Sally.</p><p>His eyes passed over the singer, decent voice, live music was always better than... Wait a frickin' minute.</p><p>Shoulder length hair, built enough to get by in a bar fight, that face looked like... and it sounded like him too. <em>No way. </em></p><p>"Lee Webb," he muttered to himself. It had been years, more than years, it had been like <em>seventeen years</em> (and boy, did he not want to think about how old that made him).</p><p>Lee hopped off the stage, hugging and greeting people, and damn it had to be him. He was alive after all these years. They both were. Who woulda thought?</p><p>"Son of a bitch," he said. Lee looked up, scanned his face, though it didn't take long for the recognition to come.</p><p>"Dean friggin' Winchester," Lee said, face a mirror of his own fake scowl.</p><p>But Dean couldn't hold it for long, the shell cracked and he <em>grinned</em>. He and Lee slapped their hands together in that half clap, half handshake half high-five thing they always did. (And he only briefly thought about how Cas would frown and tell him<em> that was three halves Dean, how can something be comprised of one and a half components?</em>).</p><p>"I'll be damned, Man, come in here!" Lee pulled him in and he came. A fast, tight hug with a few slaps on the back, like when they were teenagers or twenty-somethings. And <em>wow</em>, it really has been a long frickin' time. He can feel his mouth pulling one of those cut-your-face-in-half grins that Jack has mastered.</p><p>"What the hell are you doing here?"</p><p>"What am I d- I own this joint! What are you doing here?" Lee shouted back at him, face split wide in his own grin. </p><p>"Working a case," he answered, leaning in to speak low enough they won't be overheard.</p><p>"Still hunting, huh?" He had this look of awe about him, and Dean was pretty sure he didn't look too different. But damn, the last time they saw each other they'd both assumed they'd be dead in ten years... or less. </p><p>"Not as much anymore but a few every now and again,"</p><p>"Dean Winchester, unbelievable," Lee said again, like he felt as surprised but like in the surprise party way. "Hey uh, Lorna! Lorna! Lo-" </p><p>The same brunette woman as before, with the basket fulla phones came around. </p><p>"Lorna, can you get a couple of beers for me and my boy here?" </p><p>Lorna smiled.</p><p>"You got time, right?" Lee asked, and Cas would definitely understand. It wasn't often they ran into old friends that were <em>still alive</em>, especially one from this long ago. </p><p>"I got enough," </p><p>"Alright," </p><p>"You own the place!" He laughed, riding high on that nice feeling of running into someone that was actually alive after all these years. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"Tell me, how's the old man?" Lee asked, taking a swig of his beer. </p><p>"He died," </p><p>Lee's face fell. </p><p>"Thirteen years ago, but hey, he was doing what he loved, kicking ass and taking names," </p><p>"I'm sorry, man." Lee's voice had that sad sincerity thing he did between hunts when they were young, when the jokes were over and they were patching up, when they had nobody to pretend to be alright for. </p><p>And as much as it sometimes still hurt like a bitch that he was gone, Dean was also glad his old man had moved on. He'd have never gotten to work things out with Cas if Dad had been around. </p><p>Hell, Sam probably would've been dead by Dad's hand if he knew about all the drinking demon blood and accidentally letting the devil out to play. </p><p>And Jack... John Winchester never would have let a nephil, much less the biological son of the frickin' devil himself live to be anything more than a minute old... if even that. And as much as Dean loves his Dad, he knew that most of the shit he'd been put through as a kid was not in any way alright. </p><p>But he can't say any of that. </p><p>Instead, he says; "I appreciate that," </p><p>"Always liked that crusty son of a bitch," the Lee really broke into a smile, "Remember that time he caught us wasted on a Hunt?" </p><p>And yes, Dean remembers, he remembers vividly. He remembers being fifteen and more than a little tipsy. He remembers the room swimming and looking at Lee just a little too much, and touching him just a little too much. He remembers drunk sloppy teenage kisses. And most of all he remembers John coming in, tearing them apart, dragging his out to the impala. He remembers the cold ice of fear in his heart sitting in the passenger seat, he remembers the choice words Dad had given him that day, about what made a <em>real man</em>, about how he better not ever catch word of Dean doing such a thing ever again. About how his dead mother would be disgusted in him. </p><p>"I thought he'd skin us alive!" Lee laughed, and it made sense, he might have been drunker, he certainly hadn't gotten the lecture that night, and the next morning, and the next week. Dean smiled along, his face feeling tight with that desire to clench his teeth and brace himself against the memories. He didn't want to taint the memory for Lee. </p><p>"Tell you what, he always liked you though, he always liked you," Dean said, his smile feeling a little less forced. At least he doesn't feel bitter about that anymore.</p><p>John had made so many comments about what a good, obedient son Lee probably was to his folks, about how he probably didn't cause trouble for trouble's sake. It didn't matter that Lee had been kissing him too, it mattered that Dean was kissing a boy and 'poisoning' both himself and Lee. </p><p>"In fact, he said he'd never seen anybody handle themself so well in a fight, and that's high praise coming from him." </p><p>"To John Winchester," Lee raised his beer. </p><p>"Thank you," Dean responded, not trusting himself to repeat the words, it'd been 13 years since John died and he still hadn't gotten through half of that bullshit.</p><p>"So, I recall you saying you got enough time but you don't seem to be in a hurry to run off and finish your Hunt,"</p><p>"Honestly, I'm here to interview a witness but uh, I wouldn't be too upset if it were just the everyday runaway," he checked his watch. 4:55 pm. </p><p>"You got somewhere to be, I mean besides the Hunt?" </p><p>"I know I'm gonna miss dinner, but I should probably call soon to let Cas know I'm okay," </p><p>"I could flag down Lorna to get your phone," </p><p>"No need," </p><p>"Hey, I'll have you know that's against the House rules!" Lee joked, not any real anger behind it. </p><p>"Yeah, well, Lorna said I had a good enough reason to keep it," </p><p>"And what's that?" </p><p>"Let me show you," he fished the phone from his pocket, opening it up to one of the other pics Cas sent.</p><p>"Dean Winchester, a father!" Lee laughed with delight, "How old is he?" He asked, leaning in with a big genuine grin that Dean is so glad to see. </p><p>"Two and a half," Dean can't help the smile. Cas, Jack, they're his family now. Jack is his son at this point, Cas is more things than he could really put into words. And Dean will be damned the day he can't smile at a picture of Jack and his adorable and bright gap-toothed smile.</p><p>"Dean Winchester, a family man!" Lee laughed, mockery thankfully absent from his tone. He was happy for him. And Dean was happy to get that approval, they'd both come so far, and gained so much. Even if they probably lost a whole lot along the way. </p><p>"Yeah, I wasn't sure I'd even fit in a family, but Cas has always been good at pulling me outta my bullshit," </p><p>"Ah, so this 'Cass' is to blame for the domestication of Dean Winchester!" </p><p>Dean laughed, "I can't say I'm sure who domesticated who anymore," he mused, thinking about the once stoic and seemingly unfeeling angel, the little tin soldier that had admittedly been terrifying, both because the whole angel thing and because <em>even then</em> he could see straight through Dean. Through all the layers of B.S. Cas became more human and he became more of who he actually wanted to be and less of the layered violence and obedience John had taught him. </p><p>"No, man you can't just not tell me about her," </p><p>"Well, <em>he</em> and I met, -" Lee gave him an impressed raised eyebrow and Dean almost shoved him for that,  "-Damn!- eleven years ago, and first it was a mostly business thing, I had to work with him and he had to work with me, and I thought he was a dick," he starts the story, leaving out the angel thing becuase he did not have the time to try to explain that, or to explain how Cas was the one who pulled him out of hell and oh yeah he'd been in hell and died more than a half a dozen times now, "then I met the rest of his ...hunting crew and turns out he was the awkward one, the rest of them are dicks on purpose, and long story short he became my best friend and we couldn't ever stay away from each other long. Even when we were idiots," </p><p>"Eleven years?" Lee let out an impressed laugh, "Good for you," he clapped Dean on the back.</p><p>"You have too much faith in me, I spent nine and a half of those a complete idiot growing a crush the size of frickin' Montana and never said a damn thing," </p><p>"Are you serious?"</p><p>"I am damn serious, and when this finally comes out it's 'cause Cas told me he'd been frickin' in love with me the whole damn time!" </p><p>"You're lying! That's worse than a soap opera!" </p><p>"That was ten years of my frickin' life! Sam and I were helping him raise a frickin' baby! I can't believe Sam didn't kill me," he found himself laughing along, now that they've got that figured out enough, the love thing, it's easier to laugh at stuff like that. Because he was such an idiot.</p><p>"Your brother had to third wheel all that!?" Lee doubled over now, wheezing with laughter. </p><p>"Yeah!" he laughed until his sides were sore and the quiet dragged along comfortably. "Okay, I really need to call them now,"</p><p>"Go, family man!" Lee called after him waving him towards the door, Dean chuckled, pushing through, out into the darkness. According to his lock screen display, it was now 5:07 pm. He unlocked and pressed the call button from the text screen.</p><p>"Hello, Dean," Cas answered on the second ring, and even a ninety-minute drive away he could feel the warmth in Cas's voice and the softness of his gaze.</p><p>"Heya, Cas, tell the little tyke I'm gonna miss dinner and I might not be back for bedtime,"</p><p>"Dean!" a little voice shouted, and Cas muffled the microphone, speaking to Jack.</p><p>"I'm putting you on speakerphone," Cas warned him before pressing a button.</p><p>"Dean! We looked snakes and tigers!" Jack exclaimed, all the energy of a comet and then some all condensed into a barely waist-height little boy. Dean wasn't sure if that was a nephil thing or just a kid thing.</p><p>"Whoa, buddy, tigers?" He asked, animating his voice for Jack's benefit. The way the kid smiled and got absolutely ecstatic when his enthusiasm was met with some enthusiasm meant that Dean often found himself speaking about normal things as if they were amazing... and they were awesome in one of those mundane simple ways that made him feel old when he thought about it.</p><p>"Tigers ornge! And snakes yellow! Snakes big teef! And the snake pfft me!" the toddler rambled excitedly, blowing a raspberry into the phone to explain the weird tongue flick thing.</p><p>Everything in the world sounded better when described in the limited words of an excited two-and-a-half-year-old nephil, even snakes.</p><p>"Whoa, did you say <em>'Thank you, Cas'</em> for taking you to the Zoo?"</p><p>"Uh-huh!" Dean could hear the waver in Jack's voice that came from bobbing his head in a nod, his dirty blond hair likely flopping everywhere.</p><p>"Why don't you tell Dean about the birds in the aviary?" Cas asked gently.</p><p>"Birds?" He asked, leaning against Baby's hood.</p><p>"The birds fly-ed and birds sit on Jack and birds sit on Cas!"</p><p>"Wow, sounds like you guys made some friends,"</p><p>"Wings lots a colors! Like Cas's wings!" Jack chirped, taking Dean for a frickin' turn because the kid could <em>see</em> Cas's wings... Did that mean the kid could see Cas's true form? Or at least the bits of it that peaked out from his human body?</p><p>"What colors are Cas's wings?" he asked before he had a chance to really think about it. <em>Shit.</em> For all he knew, that was a weird or very personal thing to ask. Or Cas's wings were a sort spot, and since his year as a human and all they'd been a sore spot for a while. Dean didn't know much but the last he'd known they'd been half broken and misshapen and missing lots of feathers.</p><p>"Like rainbow with black!" the toddler answered like nothing was wrong.</p><p>"What about the birds?" he asked trying to distract himself from the subject of <em>Cas's wings. </em>Of the hunger he had for any sort of knowledge of what they looked like, what Cas's true form looked like. All he really knew before was that Cas was like twelve-hundred feet tall. And now that Cas's wings were like rainbows with black... whatever that meant, it had to be beautiful. And Dean once again was bitter that he wasn't one of those people that could see and hear angels in their true forms and voices.</p><p>"Green and red and yellow and blue and green and they're so pretty!"</p><p>Jack went on to ramble about birds and then back to snakes again 'cause the kid was strongly cemented in that snake phase. He listened with his head tilted back looking to the sky. The stars had come out and speckled the dark sky. The moon looked like a cookie with a bite out of it, and he could not remember if it was smaller than the night before or bigger.</p><p>He hummed and voiced some reactions when Jack paused in his verbal onslaught of what they did that day. Occasionally, Cas would remind Jack to tell him about a specific animal or thing they had done. Dean really liked phone calls like this, even then they were not as great as having these conversations in-person.</p><p>They lacked the barreling run into a hug attack thing that Jack did and the visual of the little boy bobbing his head in excitement and his almost over-exaggerated facial expressions. It was also missing the visual of Cas, all warmth and softness, doing his best to melt while remaining in that still upright posture.</p><p>But perhaps the worst shortcoming of a phone call was time. Conversations always had to be cut shorter this way. Especially since he would need to get off the phone so that Jack would actually stop and eat his dinner.</p><p>"Alright listen, kiddo," he breathed, preparing himself for the fact he had to end the call sometime soon, "Dean's not gonna be back for bedtime," he hated this, even though he knew he did not let JAck down as much as his own father had done to him. He never was away for more than a week at a time and his hunts were much more infrequent than they had been before the boy was born. He could go almost two months without a hunt on a regular basis, and it was fine. He didn't miss hunting as much as he used to think he would. He didn't miss it as much as he had when he'd been with Lisa and her son. Maybe because he was still passing along research for Jody, Donna, Mom, and their other friends.</p><p>Sam and Eileen went hunting more than he and Cas did. And most of the hunts he did were with Cas, today's solo hunt being out of the norm because they'd planned a road-trip for Jack and this one had seemed straightforward and small enough.</p><p>"But story!" Jack whined, he was probably pouting with that little bottom lips wobbling and his big puppy eyes all sad and pleading.</p><p>"I know, I'm sorry Jack, but I promise I'll be back for breakfast," he soothed, trying to distract from the disappointing news by the mention of Jack's favorite meal of the day. The kid was absolutely nuts about breakfast.</p><p>"Cereal?!"</p><p>"If you want," he chuckled, glad that they'd gotten those oatmeal squares that Jack seemed to like as much as cookie crunch (which Sam hated with a passion), with less sugar and more of the vitamins and mineral things that Jack needed as a growing boy. He was a sweet and wonderful kid, but toddlers did not need that much sugar for breakfast unless the idea was to kill the toddler's parents.</p><p>"Can you say Bye to Dean, Jack?" Cas prompted.</p><p>"Bye, Dean!"</p><p>"Bye, Jack," he smiled.</p><p>A button rang and he was back off of speaker.</p><p>"Dean," Cas said, and Dean did not let him finish.</p><p>"I'm sorry for asking about your wings, I shouldn't have and-" he had been waiting to apologize and he was not going to do something stupid like avoiding the subject for the indefinite future.</p><p>"Dean, it's alright, they've healed a lot since... then,"</p><p>"That's good..." he replied, "So, Jack can see them?" he continued, awkward like a damn teenager with his foot in his mouth because he had never been great at genuine communication... even with Sammy.</p><p>"Jack is a nephil, he can perceive other celestial beings," Cas answered.</p><p>"Huh," he filed that away for future, non-phone conversations. Because he was getting really damn curious about this.</p><p>"How is the hunt going?" Cas asked softly. Letting them both escape the path of that conversation.</p><p>"I'm trying to find the only witness, then I'll figure where the victim's car went," he explained, "I don't think she just drove off, but it could be one of those normal human kidnappings," he shrugged.</p><p>"What are you doing while you wait?" Cas asked with a sort of hum, Dean imagined that he was stirring one of those nutritional microwave mac-and-cheese meals they packed so that it was heated evenly for Jack's dinner. Or maybe he had ordered something for delivery and was helping Jack reach the sink to wash his little hands. Whatever it was Cas would have that fond eye-smile thing on his face, the corners of his eyes crinkling and making him look like a soft middle-aged father. Which Dean supposed they both were at this point, since he was 40 now.</p><p>"Yeah, I ran into an old buddy, we're catching up," he explained, kicking a bit of gravel with the toe of his boot.</p><p>"Don't drive inebriated," Cas cautioned, knowing that when Dean Winchester said catching up, it meant drinking with whoever. He almost rolled his eyes, Cas was such a worry-wart sometimes. He was worse than Sam.</p><p>"Yes, Cas, I know, I've only had one beer and I'm switching to water when I go back in," he promised, even though he knew he could function and drive with more alcohol in his system. But he'd stopped drinking as much with Jack around, Sam did too even with Eileen around (and their Margherita nights).</p><p>"Will you call for bedtime?"</p><p>"Of course, I can't let him go to bed without that story I promised,"</p><p>"Stay safe," he can hear the smile in Cas's voice, and he knows it is stupidly pretty.</p><p>"You know I will,"</p><p>Cas huffed fondly into the phone.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He wanted to slap himself. Lee had been acting weird and cagey every time he'd brought up that missing girl. But he hadn't seen the guy in almost fifteen years and he'd wanted to believe that his friend (though he was hardly that anymore) had gotten out of the life. That he'd made something good of himself because people could do that, not because he's been keeping a monster in the basement and been feeding it people for the better part of one and a half decades.</p><p>Retiring did not have to involve hurting innocent people, Bobby proved that, so did Jesse and Cesar Cuevas, and Garth. Even though half of those people were in a sort of half-retirement thing.</p><p>Lee could have done all this for himself without the freaky fish-man looking monster in the basement, it was possible. But he'd taken the frickin' easy awful way out. He chose to become another monster by frickin' proximity than actually work for the life he wanted. He acted like the world frickin' owed him the damn bar and the nice life, and maybe it did at some point, but not when it cost people their blood, their lives.</p><p>Deserving to retire and take a break was frickin' different than taking shit from others, from hurting people to get whatever you thought you deserved. The second you actually did that you didn't frickin' deserve a damn thing.</p><p>Interviewing Sally hadn't been as helpful as he thought, besides highlighting just how quickly the girl and her car had vanished.</p><p>He'd left the bar at six-thirty and broke into the junkyard and found the missing girl's car in less than forty minutes. Only to get hit over the head with something that felt an awful lot like one of those big, heavy flashlights people kept under their sinks.</p><p>He woke up tied to a chair in a dingy grey basement, a needle and a tube feeding on his elbow to a door with a window with bars on it. A damn ugly fucker jumped back and forth to catch each drop of his blood as it slowly dripped out of the open end.</p><p>He could hear the guy behind him, standing, breathing. The kidnapper who'd hit him with the damn flashlight and probably took that girl too. And he had a nasty suspicion of who it was.</p><p>Only two people could have known where he was going and only one of them tried to keep him from going.</p><p>"Why couldn't you just drop it?" Lee asked, sounding tired and betrayed. And that was awfully frickin' funny 'cause he was the one kidnapping people to feed to his ugly pet.</p><p>"Someone's gotta look out for the little guys," he bit out, scowling at the door and the monster beyond it, glad he didn't have to look at the metaphorical monster Lee had become.</p><p>He was not worried about dying here, he'd escaped better set-ups than this before. He'd been hooked up to bleeding rigs like this before too, the djinn, probably a vamp or two. And he knew that he hadn't been hooked up long, he hadn't that much yet. And as experienced as Lee might be in breaking up bar fights he hadn't been a hunter for fifteen years, and while Dean didn't hunt near as much as he used to, he trained or sparred with Sam or Cas on a daily basis and spent the rest of his time chasing after and lifting a two-and-a-half-year-old who loved going to the lake and being thrown in.</p><p>It took him sixteen minutes to kill the monster. Seven more to corner and kill Lee.</p><p>He didn't have a choice, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.</p><p>At least the monster's body disintegrated to ash. Lee burned that poor girl's body, to keep her from haunting him. That only leaves him to deal with.</p><p>Dean looks to his watch, cusses.</p><p>He missed bedtime by almost an hour and a half now. He had a voicemail from Cas. Which he would listen to later.</p><p>Cas picks up on the first ring with a concerned and borderline angry;<em> "Dean!"</em></p><p>"Sorry, Cas, I know I promised but, I got a bit tied up, literally here and-" he cut himself off, wanting to wash off again. Even though that creature and Lee's blood were both gone from his hands and his face and his sleeves.</p><p>"Are you alright? Do you need me to-" Cas started to offer but Dean cut him off.</p><p>"Cas, just stay with Jack, I've got it covered," he sighed, and after a second; "And I'm fine."</p><p>"You don't sound fine," Cas pointed out stubbornly, probably doing that <em>you aren't fooling me</em> head tilt and eyebrow thing.</p><p>"That old friend of mine I was catching up with? He was taking people and feeding them to a gold shitting monster-freak," he explained, thinking about all the stupid problems he'd started 'cause he hadn't frickin' talked about something with Sam or Cas. He wasn't gonna start shit like that again, not after all the shit they'd been through. Not with Jack around.</p><p>"I'm sorry, Dean,"</p><p>"Yeah, me too," he breathed, pressing the heel of his palm into his eyes until spots danced behind his eyes.</p><p>"When will you be back?"</p><p>"Soon as I burn the body," he answered, pulling his hand away from his face, his eyes were starting to burn from the pressure. "I don't think I could sleep alone tonight," he admitted.</p><p>"I'll be here, Dean," the quiet seriousness and surety of the seraph's tone is like warm water on aching muscles, pulling the tension out of him. After what he just did, a lot of him feels like he doesn't deserve that. But the rest of him is so relieved from the comfort Cas provides.</p><p>"Thanks, Cas," he breathed, steeling himself for the hours until he can pull himself into the angel's arms and the angel in his.</p><p>He cleaned the blood from the bar first, then he took Lee's body to the middle of nowhere and burned it. Until the bones were crumbling and snapping from the heat. Then he buried those.</p><p>It wasn't grief that he felt, not really. Lee had been lost to him a long time ago.</p><p>It was disappointment that he felt. Stinging, bitter in the back of his throat.</p><p>Lee had let him down, let everyone down. Lee had purposely hurt and killed who knows how many people just to get some stupid reward he thought was owed to him from growing up as Dean had, learning to hunt before anything else.</p><p>Dean understood monsters killing people, they were monsters. And half of them needed to eat people to survive.</p><p>But actual, human on human murder? That didn't make sense.</p><p>He couldn't begin to understand why a person, a regular human person, would ever think it was okay to just kill someone else. Especially for something as stupid as money.</p><p>One of the perks of driving in the middle of the night was that there was basically never anyone else on the road, besides truckers maybe, if you were on one of those big trucking routes.</p><p>And one of the lovely benefits of having the road to yourself is that the speed limit was even more flexible than usual.</p><p>He made it to the hotel in Dallas at eight minutes past midnight.</p><p>He swiped the stupid card and the light blinked green, letting him turn the handle, to find that Cas had put the chain lock thingy on the door.</p><p>"Cas?" he whispered into the gap of the door.</p><p>"Sorry, Dean," Cas answered, closing the door before rustling with the chain to open it for real this time.</p><p>Dean didn't even get into the room before he'd fallen into Cas.</p><p>Cas caught him and held him. Dean clung onto him, and his silly plaid-lined trench coat. To keep his hands from shaking he fisted them into the weird flap thing that fell over Cas's shoulder blades. Almost like it was to cover a hole in the coat from which Cas could stick his wings out of.</p><p>He laid in Cas's arms. In the bed opposite where Jack snored, holding onto his Marvelous Marvin teddy-bear and drooling just a little bit.</p><p>In the morning there would be cereal and chatter and toddler smiles. Then sing-alongs in Baby to the Jack-appropriate playlist. He and Cas would switch who sat in the back to keep Jack company until they made it to Galveston. Then they'd spend a few days at the beach.</p><p>Tomorrow would bring things that he never dreamed he'd get to have when he was fifteen or even twenty-three.</p><p>But that was tomorrow. Tonight, he settled against Cas, relaxing into the seraph's hold. Letting the angel hum to him and run a calloused hand through his hair. </p><p>Tonight he slept.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Jack woke him up in the morning, despite the gentle shushing noises and gestures Cas had made to try and let him sleep in a bit longer.</p><p>Dean grinned, he'd been the one to sign up for this, and he sure as heck would not complain now. Not after he'd seen what he could've become.</p><p>"I'm up, I'm up," he said, pulling himself into a sitting position and wondering just how quickly he could get a cup of coffee. He would go and make it himself with one of those weird Keurig things that every hotel (not motel) room seemed to have, but as soon as he was upright his lap was full with an excited toddler nephil.</p><p>And there was no damn way he would make the kid leave unless there was some drastic life or death (or bathroom) emergency going on.</p><p>Jack proceeded to tell him everything he couldn't say on the phone the night before, including what they had for dinner and lunch and a few of the animals he'd forgotten to speak about.</p><p>"Last night story?" the little boy asked as Cas (the blessing that he was) handed him a full cup of coffee over Jack's head.</p><p>"Yeah, sorry about that, kiddo," he said ruffling the floppy dirty blond hair. They were going to need to cut it soon or Jack 'd end up like Sam.</p><p>Jack hummed with a smile, almost purring like a little kitten from the contact. Dean chuckled under his breath, taking a sip of the hot coffee, the kid was darn cute.</p><p>"Would you like me to tell you it now?" he asked.</p><p>Jack nodded his head vigorously, his hair flopping into his eyes just a little bit.</p><p>Cas settled down beside him, stealing a sip from his mug every so often as he told the story. Jack watched his hands and his face as he recounted the tale of the brave and clever Queen Charlie and how she defeated an evil fairy who had been attacking her subjects. A story that was heavily edited, but still mostly true. And one day Dean would be able to tell Jack the full version.</p><p>It was a good morning, he was glad for everything he'd done and everything done to him, for having led him to this.</p><p>It was not the life he'd thought he would get to lead, and it was so much better than he could have ever hoped for.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>When I started this I thought it would be at max 3k. As you can see it ended up being double that length. </p><p>I have been lead to believe that nephilim is the plural of the singular nephil. The way seraph is singular and seraphim is plural. Which makes sense to me.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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